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.A ZEST ORATION 



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Mil 111 €Illi€T'fifi 



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Delivered at Haywood's Ctorcl Halifax County, on lee 24111, 1882, 



— BY— 



THEODORE BRYAjYT KINGSBURY. A. M. 



TO 




Published at the solicitation of the Methodists of Halifax'. 



WELDON, N. C.i 
Printed at, IIarrell's ,,i<eap Book and Job P 
1 8 8 2. 



IS 



1 



II 



* 



J^IsT OZR/JLTIOIsT 



^ON THE^ 



CHARACTER 



Late E®v* nomas 6« Lowe* 



at Haywsod's CM, Halifax County, on Me 24111,. 



-BY — 



Theodore Bryant Kingsbury, A. M, 



Published at the solicitation of the Methodists of Halifax. 



WELDON, N. C: 
Harrell's Cheap Book and Job Printing House. 
1 8 8 2. 



When the letter was recieved inviting me to be amongst you 
to-day to participate in its solemn exercises, it found me in un- 
certain health and with the editorial cares of a daily newspaper 
resting upon me. Declining other invitations I could not decline 
this. How could I refuse to contribute all I was able in saving 
from decay the precious memory of a dear personal friend with 
whom I had held sweet communion almost daily through several 
years, with whom I had walked and talked in all of the free- 
dom and frankness that true friendship and sympathy allow, 
and whose pure and simple character grew brighter and more 
attractive with time? How could I refuse, however pressed with 
duty, and feeble in body to la} 7 my offering upon the altar of friend- 
ship, and to do my utmost in enabling others to understand 
better the intellectual character of a man whose life was simple, 
who lived honestly and frugally before all men, and whose genius 
way genuine, but who has most unfortunately left no memorial, 
no line even, to attest to generations unborn the splendor and 
grace of his superb mind? 

I am here, my friends, to place a stone — would it were of 
purest marble from Carrara and finished with true Phidian art 
— in that monument which pure friendship and men's unfailing 
recollections must raise to the memory of the greatest man yet 
born in a county by no means barren of men of mark. I came 
here also from a more selfish consideration. I came to mingle 
for a few hours among old acquaintances, and to take by the 
hand in cordial grasp those I have long known and for whom 
I bear always in my heart of hearts a very sincere attachment, 
praying always to. the C4reat Ruler and Beneficent Dispenser of 
the Universe for each and all for every possible blessing which 
He can vouchsafe and a true friendship can invoke. Why, I am 
half a Halifax man myself. In this historic county — a few 
miles from Clarksville — the dwelling still standing in the grove 
on the road to Palmyra — the mother who died when I was so 

In Exchange 

DuM 'University 
J UV 12 1933 



young and whose memory I cherish with so much of filial de- 
votion and affection, was born. She had kindred and many 
friends in this goodly county sixty years since, and when I 
think of Halifax I think of the county of my maternal an- 
cestors, where their bones rest, where my father lived for a 
decade, where I have lived, and beneath whose hospitable soil 
two of my own children sleep awaiting for Jesus, their friend 
and mine, to awaken them, and where I rejoice this day to 
know that I have found many of the truest and dearest friends 
of my own somewhat protracted manhood. How 7 could I then 
afford to remain away when such a call was sent me ? 

Whether, as is affirmed by some very intelligent writers, elo- 
quence be in a condition of decline or no in the South, I will 
not now undertake to determine; but as far as North Carolina 
is concerned this much I will be bold enough to declare: that 
in both Church ami State there are but few if any such orators 
now its formerly. I find no men moving me now as I was 
moved thirty years ago, and I do not believe this is attributable 
to any loss of sensitiveness or impressibleness on my part. I 
could make this appear, I think, but it would lead me too 
far from the theme of the hour. 

North Carolina has produced several pulpit orators who 
ranked high in their respective denominations. In that section 
of the State lying west of Raleigh there have been at least two 
superior native orators. John Kerr, the elder, the father of the 
late Judge Kerr, was no doubt the greatest pulpit orator the 
very numerous Baptist denomination in the South has had. 
The late Rev. Dr. Jeter, of Richmond, Va., a prince in Israel, 
and a capital judge of preaching, having heard the leaders of 
two continents, gave it as his deliberate opinion that Mr. Kerr 
was the greatest of all sacred orators to whom he had listened. 
Gen. T. L. Clingman said he was a most wonderful preacher. He 
heard him once for nearly three hours and he would have 
gladly heard him three hours longer. The late Dr. JSTuma F. 
Reid was an exceptionally fine preacher — analytical, logical, 
and at times really eloquent. But the East has been the most 
productive section in men of powerful or facinating eloquence. 
Perhaps the most eloquent living Baptist preacher in the State 
is a native of Bertie. I refer to the venerable William Hill 
Jordan, of Granville. His half-brother, the late Rev. Dr. Poin- 
dexter, born in the same county, was the most influential Bap- 



4 



tist minister in Virginia, where he spent most of his ministerial 
lite, and where he died. He was one of the greatest platform 
speakers in the Christian Church of America. "When a few years 
ago Rev. Dr. Cornelius B. Riddick, a native of Hertford county, 
moved to California, he left no peer in North Carolina for true 
eloquence among the ministry. He has established a complete 
supremacy as a preacher in the Conference of California, as I 
have seen mentioned in the Methodist organ of that State. He 
is a capital preacher or I am not worthy to judge. Incompar- 
ably the first Episcopal orator of North Carolina thus far was 
the late eminent Eev. Dr. Francis L. Hawks, a native of New- 
Berne and an eastern man. At the time of his death he was 
generally regarded as the great orator of American Episcopacy. 
Another eminent preacher was the late Eev. Dr. Lovick Pierce, 
of Georgia, and he was a native of Halifax. He was a very 
able man and a prodigious preacher of the Gospel. Twenty 
years or more ago I asked Rev. Dr. Decerns who was the 
greatest preacher he ever heard. 1 well remember his answer. 
Said lie, "When Lovick Pierce is at his best I never heard a 
better." In point of mental power, I have but little doubt, he 
was the equal at least of any I have mentioned. But he was not 
as great an orator as Kerr, and not the equal of two others of 
whom I now turn to speak, and they were both Eastern men. 
I refer to Hezekiah G. Leigh, a native of Perquimans, and 
Thomas G. Lowe, a native of Halifax. They were both Metho- 
dists, and no two men were more unlike in the structure of 
their minds, and in the characteristics of their masterly elo- 
quence. As there are no two leaves in the forests that are 
precisely alike; as there are no two flowers that bloom that are 
in hue, perfume and even formation exactly the same; as there 
are no two mountains that loom heavenward that in outline 
and detail are alike, so there are no two men who are precisely 
similar in mental and physical organization. There is always 
a manifest contrast to the discerning eye or the observant 
critic. Each has his own individuality, clear cut and easily 
defined. God in his own good time raises up men and qualifies 
them specially to do His chosen work and to fulfil His grand 
purposes. He requires men of various mental qualities and dis- 
tinctive powers of eloquence, and at the right time the}' step 
upon the platform of the world and answer to the roll-call of 
Deity. 



5 



He causes Moses and Aaron to appear together — the man 
of stammering speech and the man of ready eloquence. And 
then on through the ages as the persecuted and struggling and 
yet conquering Church needs the help of courageous hearts and 
high intellects — of men of rare but dissimilar powers, at God's 
j fiat the right men appear. At one time it may be the logical. 
' powerful, eloquent, exalted Paul, so full of holy zeal and grand 
conceptions of conquests, or of the gifted, persuasive, enticing 
Apollos. At another time it is the golden-mouthed Chrysos- 
tom or the acute, eloquent and constructive Augustine. Then 
again it may be the robust, ardent, bold, able, organ-voiced 
Luther, or the subtile, learned, vigorous, original, penetrating 
Calvin. Or coming down the centuries it is the tireless, lucid, 
evangelical, administrative AVesley, surpassing all men in the 
quality and quantity of his work since Paul completed the last 
of his great missionary journeys, or it is his gifted co-laborer. 
George AVhittield, who compassed land and sea in his stupen- 
dous efforts to preach the blessed Gospel of the Son of God and 
to bring men to the foot of the cross, and whose eloquence was of a 
most extraordinary kind — vehement, dramatic, pathetic, abound- 
ing in simple narrative, delivered with a voice of unexampled rich- 
ness, melody and variety. Sir James Stephens, in his masterly 
article upon him, says, ''he was a great and holy man, and as a 
preacher without a superior or a rival !" God always has his 
"men of consolation"' as well as "the sons of thunder." 

The Almighty had a positive use for two such preachers and 
orators as Leigh and Lowe. There was work for them to do 
in that part of the moral vineyard in which their destinies were 
cast. I will not detain you with an imperfect analysis of the 
elder orator. I never heard Mr. Leigh but once. He had been 
broken by disease, and Death had already thrown his shadow 
upon him. But he was still an imposing figure in the pulpit, 
! majestic, serene, noble, and although more than thirty years have 
: passed, I remember distinctly that his subject was Moses the 
j Lawgiver, and I remember the impression upon my youthful 
mind was that never before had I heard such thorough analysis 
of motive and character and such a grand presentation of a 
grand human life. I heard many years ago the Eev. Robt. O. 
Burton say that once in Norfolk, Va., such was the overwhelming 
j power of Mr. Leigh's preaehing that when he uttered his last 
; word the whole congregation were standing. Before I con- 



elude I will show you that Mr. Lowe sometimes produced ex- 
traordinary impressions and on some occasions extraordinary 
results. These two sons of Methodism were wonderful sons ot 
eloquence. They knew each other here in this life and they 
know each other in the bright beautiful world beyond. "The 
pure in heart shall meet again." 

From what I have said it is apparent that North. Carolina 
has had her share of preachers who were gifted with a very 
genuine eloquence, and who possessed a combination of endow- 
ments that entitle them to rank with the most imposing and 
attractive pulpit orators of the nineteenth century. But not 
only in the pulpit has our State been blessed with orators. At 
the bar and in the Congress or on the hustings she has had 
men of high abilities and often of a noble eloquence. A State 
that has produced a Davie, a Benton, a Gaston, a Badger, an 
Archibald Henderson, a Wiley P. Mangum, an Iredell, a Vance 
can not be said to have been barren of great and gifted sons. 
But I am altogether persuaded that the highest, the purest elo- 
quence of North Carolina has been among the ministers of the 
G-ospel. And why not? With the lofty, ennobling, heart- 
moving themes that preachers of righteousness have at their com- 
mand, why should they not achieve the most conspicuous re- 
sults and wear such quartering^ in the escutcheon of fame that 
shall out rival all the bravery and blazonry of other intellectual 
achievements? The immortality and eternal salvation of the 
soul of man conies home directly to each hearer and lends a 
higher inspiration than it is possible for any earthly themes to 
furnish. It is a subject that melts the heart of the simpte and 
the great, and all alike are wrapped in the garments of an en- 
chantment that both delights and warms. The greatest of 
these sacred orators I have named — Iverr, Leigh and Lowe — 
spoke face to face with men from full minds, and with a ready, 
copious eloquence, without notes or manuscript. They spoke 
as the great orators of the world have always spoken when 
with intense emotion, feeling every senti ment they uttered, they 
poured forth in rapid succession their 

"Thoughts that breathed and words that burned." 

Let us consider for a moment what eloquence is. We can do 
this briefly and more satisfactorily by a reference to examples. 

Mr. Webster said : "True eloquence does not consist in 



i 



speech. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, 
but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, and in 
the occasion/' And Mr. Webster was right. An orator is born 
just as much as a poet. True eloquence ''must exist in the 
man." The schools cannot impart it; neither study nor practice 
8an bring it "from afar." 

Mr. Everett was a highly accomplished gentleman. His 
speeches read very charmingly. He was a delightful rhetorici- 
an, and he recited his fine productions with a certain pleasing 
stateliness that I well remember. But surely he was no great 
orator. His statues were very graceful, were very deftly 
wrought out of pure white marble, but then they were lifeless. 
He lacked the divine afflatus— "the glorious burst of winged 
words" — that sent his thoughts to the heart like tfie unerring 
and bounding shaft from the archer's bow. Patrick Henry, 
on the other hand, knew but little of rhetorical tropes and fig- 
ures, was neither learned nor extensively read, was ignorant of 
acknowledged elocutionary rules, was unskilled in the usages of 
courts and coteries, but was a living battery — -a powerful mag- 
netic organism, possessed a soul full of passion, and commanded 
at will the language of Nature. His eloquence was a part of 
himself; it -existed in the man." It is no wonder that he could 
control an audience as a skilled rider the horse. ]S"o one could 
sit under the inspirations of his voice and criticise the speaker. 
The intense magnetism of the orator swept away all resistance, 
and held one in leash. When Mr. Everett spoke you could 
watch curiously his mannerisms, his posturings, his pronuncia- 
tion, even the felicities of his diction and the graceful flow of 
his periods, and be always self contained, never for a moment 
yielding to the influence of his artificial and entertaining elocu- 
tion. Mr. Everett did not seem to feel himself, and hence, could 
not make others feel. There was too much of art and not 
enough of nature in what he did — his passions seemed asleep. 

I come now to fulfil as far as I am able a promise I once made 
to my departed friend in a spirit of pleasantry and in a happy 
moment when enjoying the delightful companionship of a sweeter 
and more entraneing orator than any I have named — than anj T I 
have known. In the delicacy, refinement and grace of his in- 
tellect thomas G. lowe, was incomparably bey ond all men I have 
known. - He was not the equal ot some I have named in the 



8 



dramatic qualities of his genius; he was not their equal in sinewy 
and masculine vigor of intellect; be was not their equal in that 
grand, sonorous, commanding, awing eloquence of which they 
were masters. But in eloquence of another kind he was supreme 
as far as I know. I told this silver throated, simple hearted, 
unspoiled son of nature one day that I thought I understood his* 
gifts and graces better probably than any other person did, and 
that if I survived him I would prepare a sketch of his life. I 
have sought in vain for many years to obtain the material nec- 
essary for the writing of such a monograph as friendship would 
dictate. I must, therefore, content myself now with the most 
meagre of all sketches, and without those minute personal 
touches which constitute the real charm of biography. I have 
not one line from others with which to enrich this oration. 1 
have no biographical material, no reminiscences, no memora- 
bilia, no letters upon which to draw. 

If Thomas Gr. Lowe had been born in JRome in the days of 
the Antonines, poets and philosophers, as they listened to the 
sweet and tender eloquence that flowed from his tongue, would 
have insisted that at his birth were gathered those Muses and 
Graces who were presumed to be most concerned in the gifts of 
eloquence and song, that they might shed upon the unconscious 
infant their selectest influences. In our day few men have 
lived whose beauty of mind was reflected in a more charming 
eloquence than his, or of whom it could be more truly affirmed, 
to use the fine words of Milton, "his tongue dropped manna." 

His birth place is a few hundred yards from this newly 
erected church. Yonder, in sight of us, stands the old home- 
stead where his eyes first saw the light. Under those trees 
still remaining he played in childhood. There he received 
those maternal lessons the influence of which he never lost. 
There amid wide stretching sands, in a secluded home was 
reared as genuine a child of natural eloquence, I must believe, as 
belongs to our time and country. Born of plain, honest, virtu- 
ous parents, fairly intelligent and worthy, this gifted boy had 
but limited opportunities for acquiring a sound education or of 
laying up stores of knowledge upon which to draw in after 
years. His education, in fact, was limited and was only such as 
could be obtained in the ''old field schools" of sixty years ago. 
His birthday was August 10th, 1815. The old Haywood's 
Methodist Church, on the site of which this new edifice stands, 



9 



was a very humble structure of the primitive sort. Here in his 
early boyhood, when full of life and joyousness, he often heard 
the self-sacrificing itinerants tell of Jesus and eternal life be- 
yond the skies. I do not know how soon he found the truth, 
but whilst yet a small lad he would mount the rail fence and 
deliver a little sermon to the attentive negro children who, 
"ranged around," constituted his sole audi <<ry. Beforj he was 
twenty-one be became a local minister in the Methodist Epis 
copal Church, and soon gave promise of that very exceptional 
and seraphic eloquence for which he was afterwards so distin- 
guished. 

In August 1842, he was married to Miss Maria J. Wade, of 
New Berne, a young lady of good family and education. By 
her he had two daughters, one of whom, Kate, married Mr. 
Robert J. Boyd, Jr., of Halifax, and is now dead ; the younger, 
Lizzie, married Mr. James Ousby, of the same county, and still 
survives. 

Mr. Lowe was u£t a great reader of books, but he was fond 
of good books. He had read with a genuine relish some of the 
best poets, and enjoyed the sermons of the masters, specially of 
those whose imaginative powers were of a high order. He 
thought Bichard Watson's vigorous and eloquent sermons the 
finest he had read, but he was not acquainted with the works of 
the great continental and English preachers, outside of his own 
denomination. He regarded Bishop George F. Pierce the great- 
est preacher he had ever heard. 

Mr. Lowe never entered the conference of his Church, but to 
the close of his useful and comparatively unchequered life, fre- 
quently preached not only in many portions of his own count} 7 , 
but in many of the neighboring towns, where he bad sometimes 
stated appointments. He was very much sought after, and was 
called upon continually to deliver funeral discourses anal Mason- 
ic addresses, in both of which he very greatly excelled. Indeed, 
his funeral sermons, when the subject possessed him, were of 
transcendent eloquence and beauty. In many sections of North 
Carolina, from Goldsboro and New Berne to Halifax, and from 
Murfreesboro to Baleigh and Oxford, and in some portions of Vir- 
ginia, he was sure to attract large and delighted congregations 
whenever it was known that he was to occupy the sacred desk, 
or the platform of the lecturer. Men of intelligence would ride 
twenty or thirty miles to listen to this sweet and fascinating 
orator. 



i 



His health was infirm for many years, and towards the end 
of his days it was painfully manifest to his anxious friends, and I 
he had very many, i that he was gradually sinking under the , 
ravages of pulmonary disease. A little more than thirteen years 
ago — on February 13th, 1869 — in his humble home in the town 
of Halifax, this admirable gentleman — this "poet among preach- | 
ers," as has been said of Jeremy Taylor, passed away in peace 
and hope, wept over by his own dear household and the friends j 
who gathered about his dj'ing bed, and lamented by thousands ; 
who had been so greatly favored as to have heard one of those i 
grand discourses of his — so sweet, so musical, so enthralling. : 
so forever memorable. During his lon<>- illness no murmurimi's 
escaped his lips, but he bore the heavy chastisement with that 
fortitude and resignation which were in keeping with his simple, j 
manly life. The tongue of eloquence was dumb forever, for - 
"the silver cord" had been "loosed," and "the golden bowl" had ! 
been '"broken." Then the "dust" of this good and noble man | 
was "returned to the earth as it was; and the spirit returned 
unto God who gave it." 

Only a few months ago the papers brought to me the sad in- I 
telligence that Mrs. Lowe was dead. I knew her well and have 
cause to be grateful to her for many kindnesses to me and m}~ 
family when we were living near her. She was always a true 
friend, and when God took two of ray children to himself she j 
proved her sympathy and devotion. God bless her forever! j 
Peace to her soul! I must hope that she has joined her husband ! 
in the land of glory and of rest. 

I knew Mr. Lowe very intimately for several years. There ; 
was never the slightest flaw in our friendship. From first to 
last it was smooth, warm, sincere. Long before we parted last I 
had learned to love him. 

I he^ird him preach very many times, under various circum- 
stances. I heard him after matured preparation and I heard 
him when speaking strictly impromptu, and I feel assured that he 
was by nature the most eloquent being I ever knew or heard. 
This may appear excessive to those who never heard him in one 
of his inspired efforts, or who never heard him but once and 
when he did not approach his own standard. I have heard him j 
many times when he did not rise above mediocrity. But then I j 
have heard him talk in a strain of enraptured and unearthly elo- \ 
quence that t>ut few men could approach much less excel. He ! 



was always neat in speech however ordinary the discourse. 
He was a man of singular excellence of character. Amiable, 
sincere, candid, modest, true, and just, his indeed was a line 
and lovely nature. Although praised and flattered beyond any 
man I have known, it had no injurious effects upon his unobtru- 
sive and sterling character. He always remained simple-heart- 
| ed, unpretending, thoroughly frank and good-natured. He 
neither envied others, nor prided himself upon any of his 
achievements. He used his splendid gifts in proclaiming the 
unsearchable riches of Jesus, and died, when his work was done, 
in the full assurance of an immortality of bliss through the 
atonement of his crucified and ascended Lord and Saviour. 
This really great orator — great when judged at his best — lies in 
\ his unmarked, weed grown resting-place (for he is not dead but 
! sleepeth) about two miles South of the old historic town of 
I Halifax in a burial ground where there were but few graves (pro- 
! bably but one or two.) before his body was there deposited. 
| He had chosen himself that quiet, secluded spot where he wished 
I to repose after "life's fitful fever was ended," there to await that 
summons when the graves shall give up their dead, and the re- 
deemed shall be glorified. In a few fleeting years — in a few 
swiftly passing decades at farthest, his memory will have faded 
away forever, for he has left no bright and original memorials, 
; as I have said, to perpetuate his name among the children of 
| men. 

: Standing over his grave we might well recall those well 
\ known stanzas in Gray's "Elegy" in which is described neglec- 
i ted genius. Surely Thomas Gr. Lowe's "heart" was "once preg- 
, nant with celestial fire," if we can say so much of any man of 
. our state. In his grave were interred both genius and virtue. 
| He richly deserves a monument, and upon it should be*graven 
\ deep by the sculptor's art, that it was erected to the 

FOREMOST NATURAL ORATOR OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

His name should be added to that roll of illustrious American 
preachers who were eminent for a rich, glowing, and inspiring 
eloquence. 

; Addressing so many who knew him personally, it is almost 
| unnecessary that I should attempt to describe him as he ap- 
| peared in this life. He was probably five feet, ten inches in 
\ height, and his weight was about 145 pounds. He was not 
'; fastidious in dress, but recognized fully the s'aying of John 



12 



Wesley "that cleanliness was next to godliness." It would not 
have struck a stranger that in yonder plain, quiet, gentle, un- 
obtrusive man there was a master of eloquence who sometimes 
made a tremendous impression. His forehead was not remark- 
able. There was a marked development just above the eyes, 
but the remainder of the head was neither broad nor high- 
Hi s eye was grey, and when fired by emotion gleamed with 
that exquisite light that was "never seen on land or sea." His 
nose was straight and well formed. His mouth was expressive 
of gentleness and amiability. His chin was decidedly good 
and shapely. His face was somewhat pale, deepened by rather 
delicate health when I knew him, and when he was excited by 
an unusual passion in his public address, it grew paler and 
more impressive somehow. In some of his more ecstatic mo- 
ments, as he has been described to me, the whole expression 
was strangely changed — transfigured as it were, and he really 
seemed as if transported to another sphere — in the body or out 
of it — -and he was for the time unconscious of bis earthly sur- 
roundings. This is no fancy picture. In a free conversation ' 
once in which I had to lead him by questions, he said only 
twice in his life had this strange, anomalous condition fallen 
upon him. 

When the younger Pitt was asked what was the great desid- j 
eratum in English literature, ho replied: "A speech from Boling- | 
broke." A sermon, just as it was delivered by this gifted man, j 
would be a genuine contribution to the literature of the pulpit* i 
His reputation, even among his countrymen in many parts of 
North Carolina, is a matter of tradition. In the Wilmington ! 
country I have never found a half dozen scarcely who had so \ 
much as heard of him. And yet a long time ago he preached a 
sermon in our largest town. One Wilmingtonian told me tbat | 
he had always regarded it as the most eloquent and splendid j 
pulpit effort he had heard. 

Mr. Lowe never wrote his sermons, or made a skeleton of a | 
discourse or even the slightest notes. I knew him to be ap- 
plied to'for a sermon to appear in a volume that was to be pub- 
lished. He told rue that he had never prepared a sermon or an 
address in the ordinary way in his life. He said that he lost all 
inspiration or mental fervor the momeut he undertook to use 
the pen — that the mental excitement and glow and expansion 



13 



only came to him when wrapped in meditation or when stand- 
ing upon his feet in the very act of delivery. As I have said, 
he never resorted to the pen, but on occasions of great impor- 
tance when he was to address an immense audience and expec- 
tation was at fever heat, hesitating to trust his generally ready 
powers of thought and expression, he would not only think out 
all he should say, but would arrange in his mind t"he precise lan- 
guage to be used. He would do this whilst walking, or, as was 
often the case, whilst sitting in a boat fishing. He would be 
| able to repeat several days afterwards, sometimes even for two 
or three weeks, verbatim, an entire sermon or address that he 
had delivered,, every word of which he had excogitated during 
a quiet day spent on the mill pond. But his finest oratory — his 
noblest exhibition of a high and commanding eloquence — was 
on occasions when the inspiration was upon him, and he spake 
! without previous preparation. Then, indeed, he was magnifi- 
| cent. ISTo Votes or Ehetor of the ancient world was ever more 
| happy in diction, or more beautiful, or more sublime, in thought. 
When all his powers were fully employed and his voice rang 
out with a melody as sweet as rarest minstrelsy, and he be- 
came enthralled by the subject he was discussing, he would for 
thirty or forty minutes engage in a strain of oratory that was 
as enravishing and pleasing as ever charmed earthly ears. 

His voice was very musical. In its higher key, it was an in- 
strument capable of the rarest effect. His tear-tones were abso- 
| lutely subduing and more pathetic than those of any speaker to 
| whom I have ever listened. When in his loftiest mood, when 
! his sermon was almost "of imagination all compact," and his 
I eye. "in fine phrensy rolling," was lifted heavenward, his voice 
had the clear ring of the bugle, as it sets "t he wild echoes flying." 
: Indeed, so sweet, so melodious was his voice, so exquisite his 
intonation, so distinct his articulation and emphasis, that I have 
thought that no little of the fascination he threw over his hear- 
■ ers was attributable to these very marked gifts. We all know | 
how subduing and melting is the power of music — how it recre- | 
ates the mind and composes the soul. When Mr. Lowe was in 
; one of his happy moments of inspiration and passion, his voice 
' had unwonted power and sweetness, and then it was he seemed 
i to have complete dominion over his auditors, and they became 
; tender and yielding under the magic influences wrought by this 
| master of melody and tears. The most potent of all instruments 



is the human voice. Said that graceful Kentucky poet Mrs. 
Welby: 

"There is a charm in delivery, 

A wonderful art, 
That thrills like a kiss 

From the lip to the heart." 

He had the taste and sensibilities of a poet, and although he wrote 
but little if any verse, he constantly exhibited in his public ad- 
dresses the imagination of an inspired singer, and he often 
awakened notes of such, exquisite sweetness, as he passed alon^ 
the avenues of thought, clad in the robes of the sacred ministreL 
as to remind you of the matchless numbers that flow from the 
lyre as its strings are touched by the cunning hand of some 
Keats or Shelle}". He literally, at times, spoke fine poetry, al- 
though presented in the garb of prose. In his greatest efforts 
of the imagination he gave rein to his coursers as the}" went 
careering through the heaven of invention. 

His descriptive powers surpassed those of any speaker I have 
known, with perhaps one exception. He delighted in describ- 
ing the rest of heaven, and the beatitudes of the redeemed 
in glory. He sometimes presented a fearful picture of the lost 
soul, but his heart was too tender and kindly, and bis imagination 
too refined and gentle, to delight in such harrowing scenes. 
He loved the sun-light and the flowers, and his eye was ever 
having previsions of the heavenly home, with its jasper pave- 
ments and crystal streams. 

When my good friend, the late Eev. William E. Pell, was ap- 
proaching the close of his useful life, be asked me one day — "Does 
.brother Lowe preach of heaven as he used to preach?" I repli- 
ed — "I do not know how that was, but he preaches charmingly 
and wonderfully now." Said that wise and good Christian — "I 
never heard any one tfo approach him on such a theme, and I 
could never hear him without getting so full I had to weep and 
laugh." 

His English was quite marvellous — pure, simple, correct, flex- 
ible, graceful, elegant. 

Without the benefits of a higher education, and with only a 
moderate familiarity with a few good writers of his language, 
he spoke perhaps the best English of any man of his day. Said 
an eminent New York minister once to the speaker: "Do you 
know who is master of the best English I have known on two 



15 



continents?" A negative being given. Dr. Deems continued: "It 
is Thomas G. Lowe, the only man I have ever known who 
never blundered in the pulpit, nor even in the carelessness of 
familiar talk. In his oratory there was no "ravelled sleavc" of 
sentences, but all was flowing, graceful, and melodious. If he 
dipped his pencil in the brightest, richest hues sometimes he 
never lost sight of simplicity and purity. 

His taste was very tine. He rarely offended the severest taste 
by either the grandeur of his descriptions, or the affluence of his 
diction when his theme required the boldest treatment. Nobly 
gifted, he devoted the stores of his rich, and brilliant imagina- 
tion to the service of the Redeemer, "lending all the charms of 
beauty to set forth the sanctity of truth;" but without the Asia- 
tic opulence of ornament and the excessive "flower-gardens of 
quotation." that often mar the otherwise exquisite productions 
of the English Chrysostom — Jeremy Taylor. Possibly an aus- 
tere judgment might pronounce that sometimes there was an 
excess of ornament — too many sweet metaphors — even too much 
splendor of language ; that the garment had too much- fringing 
of gold, and was too bright with excess of light. And yet I 
could defy you to point out a misapplied word, to find an adjec- 
tive too many, or to detect a figure not admirably wrought out. 
Doubtless you would be swept on, as you were never before, 
upon the very flood of his description ; doubtless you would hear 
metaphors as striking as those of poets presented in the most 
winsome garniture of words; doubtless you would drink in such 
strains of heavenly eloquence as you never heard before, com- 
pelling forgetfulness of self and the world around, being only 
conscious that you were under the control of a mighty orator, 
whose incantations charmed and fascinated you. bringing to your 
ears the allelujahs and triumphant choruses of heaven as they 
were accompanied by sounding harps of gold. 

There was nothing, however, stormy or volcanic about him ; 
there was no barbaric splendor or false glitter. Your ears caught 
the chime of the silver stream of speech aud you felt the thrill 
and flush of the heart. 

All great orators are judged by their highest efforts. It is so 
with poets. When we think of Shakespeare we think of Hamlet 
and Lear, of Macbeth and Othello. The impressions which ora- 
tors have left upon the world's memory have been made by 



16 



their most extraordinary exertions of the mind. We estimate 
Edmund. Burke by his "Nabob of Areots' Debts" speech, and by 
his four or five other most splendid orations, which are the study 
and admiration of every student of human eloquence as they 
are the despair of all statesmen. It ib so with Sheridan and 
Fox. with Pitt and Chatham, with Erskine and Grattan, with 
Webster and Preston, and, indeed, with all of the most famous 
orators of ancient and modern times. When we recall the great 
name of Demosthenes his magnificent Philippics at once come 
before us ; when the splendor and fervor of Cicero are presented 
to our view we at once recur to his vigorous and terrible denun- 
ciations of Cataline and Antony. I have estimated Thomas G. 
Lowe when at his best — have judged him. not by his every day 
efforts, or by those sermons and addresses that were pro- 
nounced exceptional'^ fine by his auditors; but I have judged 
him when he rose with an easy grace upon the wings of an as- 
piring and bold imagination, and when he "drew audience still 
as night" and men listened as they never listened before. 

The distinguishing characteristic of his mind was beauty as 
the greatest faculty of his mind was imagination. It is hard to 
over value this attribute of greatness. The imagination — what a 
wonderful instrument, what a glorious endowment! Just as 
Shakespeare and Homer, Dante and ^lilton, with their superla- 
tive imaginations, are greater than dry reasoners and cold met- 
aphysicians of the Hume, Locke and Sir William Hamilton 
type, so is the high imaginative being, governed by reason, 
greater always than the man without the heaven-born bestow- 
ment. It is because of this that the greatest poet is confessedly 
the greatest of all men, and without this transforming and illu- 
mining imagination he would fall often below the dull men who 
delve constantly and who plod through life. The truth is that 
the man who lives under the influence of a high and disciplined 
imagination is a great man even though he should never perform 
deeds or write books commensurate with his noble gifts. 
Coleridge — one of the two or three greatest men of the last two 
hundred years — never did half of what he was capable. His 
life explains this remark. The sensuous man is confined to the 
earth. The imaginative man soars heavenward, and dwells on 
promontories of thought beyond the vision or the conception of 
the other. The golden hues of imagination falling upon any • 
object gives it a peculiar glory. Her draperies can clothe the 1 



17 



nakedness of earth and add a new beauty and grace to things 
common. When imagination is sanctified ; when it lends its 
powers to the pure religion of Jesus; when it throws its radi- 
ance over topics that otherwise may seem threadbare and 
dreary, it becomes a tremendous factor in the world and a most 
potential all}' of holiness./ The imagination can vivify the dry 
bones of theology and give attractiveness to themes that other- 
wise would repel. It can so present the doctrines of eternal 
life as to allure by sweetness and love, so that the stoutest 
heart shall melt and the most barren mind shall glow under 
the fervent heat. Yes, believe me friends, a i^ich and fruitful 
and chastened imagination like Mr. Lowe possessed, is indeed 
a marvellous organ. The sanctified imagination is the noblest 
thing in the universe. Isaiah and Ezekiel, Job and Daniel had 
it. In their hands what an engine it was. All the great poets 
and orators of earth have possessed it. There can be no such 
things as a sweet, abundant, moving eloquence without imagi- 
nation. The freshest garlands ever offered to God by the 
children of men. have been woven of fancy and imagination 
and were bound with the golden bands of love and faith. It 
was this great faculty that enabled the sublimest of all poets' 
John Milton, to lay before God the great works of his creative 
genius. 

One of the great living writers of England, Dr. James Marti- 
neau, says finely : "In. virtue of the close affinity, perhaps ulti- 
mate identity, of religion and poetry, preaching is essentially a 
lyric expression of the soul, an utterance of meditation in sorrow, 
hope, love, and joy from a representative of the human heart in 
its divine relations." 

Let me quote from the President of Davidson College. In 
his excellent work on Rhetoric, Dr. Hepburn says : 

"No one can be insensible to the rare beauty of some sermons 
of this meditative, poetical cast, or dispute their high rank as 
literary productions. But those only are capable of such com- 
positions in whom are united a genuine poetical nature and a pro- 
found religious experience.'" 1 

Mr. Lowe bad both of these; he was truly poetical in his 
temperament, and he was a converted man. Hence, his preach- 
ing delighted whilst both stimulating the intellect and warm- 
ing the soul. 

Just in proportion as a man has imagination, and taste with 



18 



it, is be a poet. Without it man must always walk; he can 
never soar. It has been described as "being the eye of the soul." 
But better still, an American writer, Dr. Hudson, the very able 
critic in Shakespeare, says of it that it "is the organ through 
which the soul within us recognizes a soul without us; the 
spiritual eye by which the mind perceives and converses with 
the spiritualities of nature under her material forms." The 
Scotch philosopher, Dugald Stewart, said of imagination, that 
it ''is the great spring of human activity and the principal 
source of human improvement * * Destroy this faculty, and 
the condition of man will become as stationary as that of brutes." 

I have dwelt on this greatest of faculties of the mind because 
it is misunderstood, often underrated, especially by those to 
whom it is denied save onlj- in very stinted measure, and 
because it is the fulcrum of the world. Napoleon said the 
world "is governed by imagination," and it is a profound truth. 
Thomas G-. Lowe was the most purely imaginative being I have 
ever known personally, and yet there are dozens here to-day 
who will bear witness to his having been one of the most prac- 
tical of men, full of common sense, a man of solid judgment, a 
man utterly free from Quixotic notions and crazy fancies. He 
had a splendid imagination but under the control of reason and 
taste and allied to wisdom and discretion. He was a very 
sound piece of American timber. 

I have said that Thomas Gr. Lowe was the greatest natural 
orator, I believe, yet born in North Carolina. It seems to me 
if ever there was "a forest born Demosthenes," it was the plain, 
simple-natured, pure, unambitious North Carolina Methodist 
preacher whose life I have briefly sketched, and whose mental 
qualities I have attempted to present. I would dwell particu- 
larly upon his natural gifts. He had no training whatever in 
the schools of eloquence. He had learned nothing from elocu- 
tionists or professional actors. He knew scarcely anything of 
grammatical rules, as he once told me, and yet he spoke the 
purest and most correct English possible. He had no knowl- 
edge whatever of works of rhetoric, and yet he constructed 
his sentences with a regularity, precision, clearness and an art 
that would have excited the envy of the professed rhetorician- 
I have referred to his emphasis and intonation. In saying "Our 
Father," when leading in prayer, he always gave me a sense of 



19 



the nearness of God, of standing actually in the Divine Presence, 
such as I never felt before or since when any other man offered 
up prayer and supplication. I know not how to describe his 
manner; I only knew the effect. I have heard a great histrionic 
performer utter a word that haunted me for days. It was 
so with Mr Lowe's elocution. When overwhelmed w T ith one 
of his baptisms — that impartation of the divine afflatus, he spake 
as I never heard any other man speak. I just now referred to 
his prayers. I know not how he affected others. At times he 
impressed me most singularly. He was not boisterous or vehe- 
ment. He did not have the attitude of speech making. He did 
not address Deity as if conveying information. He did not aim 
at popular effect as is the manner of some. He was not trying 
to be eloquent. He was not so far forgetful of the proprieties of 
the place or the sanctity of the office as to strain after the ap- 
plause of hearers. But with pathos, with pleading voice, with 
reverential attitude, with persuasive solemnity he approached 
the throne of grace, and talking as if very near to Almighty 
Father, even looking up into the very face of Love itself, so full 
of benignancy and pity, he poured out adoration and supplica- 
tion in words of such real sweetness as to quite enravish the soul. 
He touched the hearts of the earthly hearers and he must have 
touched the Great Heart of the Lord of the Universe. I have 
thought once or twice when I have listened that his prayer was 
a poem — a beautiful creation, simple, earnest, not excessive, ex- 
quisite in finish and very beautiful and tender. I have thought 
about his prayers as I have thought about certain passages in 
his sermons; that there were such fine strokes — such felicitous 
words — such beautiful thoughts — such choice selection of lan- 
guage, that to appreciate them fully one should have something 
of that culture and taste necessary to enjoy full}' the music, the 
perfect workmanship, and the exquisite rhythmical effects of 
Milton's Lycidas, the most perfect poem in our language, or of 
Tennyson, one of the greatest poets God ever made. It is true all 
might enjoy the general burden of the prayer and enter gladly 
into its petitions, but it required the attuned ear, the improved 
taste, the receptive mind to relish full}' those* graceful, poetic 
touches, that adorned the whole. 

A few miles from where we now are and on the road to Hali- 
fax, I visited with him a good Christian woman who was 
slowly descending to the grave. In her sick room Mr. Lowe 
read to her all or a part of that wonderful, most comforting 
fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John. He read 



20 



it in those clear, mellow, simple tones which so moved me. 
and then he knelt by her side and held sweet audience with 
God in her behalf. It was all done with the utmost simplicity 
and sympathy. And yet, after nearly twenty years the whole 
scene is before me. I remember it to-day with more distinct- 
ness than any religious exercises that have occurred since. I 
cannot reproduce the manner and without that you would not 
appreciate the matter properly if I could command it at will. 
I can say, and truthfully, that his prayers were sometimes to 
me more striking than the elaborate efforts of some men of 
talents I have heard. 

Whilst he was not a technical logician, he was by no means 
deficient in ability as a thinker and reasoner. In his sermons 
there were no obscurities. If he did not impress you by great 
cumulative power, he would give you at least lucid statement 
and clear tracts of thought. I never heard him preach a ser- 
mon that was not well arranged and thoroughly coherent. But, 
as I have said, he was most distinguished for his sweet and 
abundant eloquence, that flowed as from an inexhaustible foun- 
tain, and ior a rich and chastened imagination that delighted to 
lay fresh garlands of poetry upon the altar of his Kedeemer and 
God. 

I have referred to his being enthralled with his subject, when 
be would speak with wondrous force and eloquence. At a camp- 
meeting held near Henderson, Granville county, 1ST. C, (now 
Vance,) about 1S57 or 1858, he preached on Saturday. It was 
a failure for him. On Sunday morning he was selected to preach 
again. He ascended the pulpit in the presence of more than 
two thousand people. He was very pale. His text was: 'How 
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation." He spoke 
calmly, deliberately, unimpassionedly for a few minutes. Pres- 
ently bis eye began to brighten, his voice to swell out and to 
piay upon that key that never failed to move and thrill. His 
imagination put on her singing robes, and t hen for over twenty 
minutes such a strain of supra-mortal eloquence issued from his 
lips as none in that immense congregation had ever heard before. 
He seemed utterly unconscious of the presence of his hearers. 
He leaned, as was sometimes his wont, upon the pulpit, his eyes 
lifted to heaven, where they continued fastened. His voice was 
sweet as lute or harp, and his grand periods rolled forth in glori- 



21 



I ous harmony. His descriptions were .simply wonderful. The 
immense congregation sat spell-bound: a death-like stillness 
prevailed, to be broken but once by the sudden swooning of a 
lady who sat watching the inspired orator. The tension was 
tremendous. It appeared, if the speaker continued in his un- i 
! earthly strain that the very heart-strings of his auditors would 
. break. It became almost unbearable when the great magician 

closed, Never before had any of that congregation heard such j 
; music, such magnificent description, such pathetic pleading, 
such entrancing and prolonged eloquence. I once mentioned 
this great effort to Mr. Lowe, and the remarkable effect it had 
upon the congregation. His reply was, "I remember but little j 
of the sermon. I had but little preparation. I only recollect j 
: that I had no mental or physical pain — that I spoke without 
j any conscious effort." 

I did not hear this masterpiece of pulpit eloquence, but it 
: created much talk in my own county, in which it was delivered, 
j I have heard it often spoken of, and it was described to me by a 
truthful and intelligent minister of the Gospel, the late Rev. Junius 
; P. Moore. He told me it was incomparably grander and moreen- j 
j trancing in its eloquence than any other effort to which he had 
listened. Indeed, he said it so far surpassed all other efforts that j 
he could compare none with it. Mr Moore was a man of solid 
I parts. A well balanced mind not to be carried away easily by 
! any ordinary display of oratory. He said that if Lowe had con- 
j tinued that he believed he himself would have broken j 
j down in some way. He had heard Bishops Pierce, Kavanaugh, 
and many other famous orators but none ever approached this 
particular effort of imagination and passion. There was but 
one opinion of the transcendent beauty and power of the dis- 
j course. 

I must mention the most remarkable sermon I ever heard him 
preach. Ten or eleven miles from the town of Halifax there is | 
| a Methodist church, in which worship a large congregation, but 
'few of whom are moderately educated, and none are scholarly 
or well informed. I mention this to show that there was noth | 
ing peculiar or extraordinary to arouse the imagination of Mr. 
| Lowe on the occasion I have in mind, or to cause him to make 
; a very uncommon effort. But nevertheless, on a quiet Sabbath 
i morning, in ISb'L I heard him preach in that church very de- 
cidedly the most beautiful, delightful, bewitching discourse to 



22 



which I ever listened. I shall never forget it as long as mem- 
ory lasts. It is to me to this hour "a thing of beauty," and it 
will remain "a joy forever." I have heard no such captivating 
eloquence in my time. A Presbyterian gentleman of Granville, 
then teaching a classical school in Halifax county, but now a 
teacher in the ministry, Kev. Isaac Osborn, of Alabama, heard 
Mr. Lowe on that day for the first time. He said to me: "If I 
had not heard him thus speak, I would not have believed it pos- 
sible for any uninspired mortal to indulge such a strain of exal" 
ted and charming eloquence. To me it is marvellous, it is a 
revelation of the most wonderful gifts." And yet Mr. Lowe was 
evidently speaking under the inspiration of the occasion. I 
doubt if he had reflected for an hour upon his theme, or that he 
ever preached the sermon again. The probability is that his 
only preparation was such as he obtak.ed during his solitary 
ride of two hours that morning from his home at Halifax to the 
church. 

I had often heard a tradition concerning a certain trip he made 
to New York before he had attained to his thirtieth year. At 
last I obtained the facts from the gentleman who accompanied 
him. Col H. B. Short, of Columbus county, but formerl}^ of 
Beaufort county, persuaded Mr Lowe to go with him to New 
York. He introduced him to some of the members of Old John's 
street Methodist Church. Lowe was asked to preach at night 
His success was pronounced. He was urged to preach again 
He did so and stirred the hearers most profoundly. That sim- 
ple hearted, gentle, plain looking "piney-field" North Carolinian 
aw T oke such echoes in the hearts of bis hearers as reminded them 
of Summerfield when he poured out from his cornucopia his 
rich treasuries of sacred eloquence. The result was a commit- 
tee of gentleman waited upon him and offered Mr. Lowe $12,000 
a year to preach to them. The unambitious and sweet-man- 
nered North Carolinian declined, saying he did not preach the 
Gospel for money, however much he appreciated their kind and 
unexpected offer. 

After preaching for thirty years in Eastern North Carolina, 
he could draw five times the crowd that any other man could 
attract. In the summer of 1864 he preached a funeral sermon 
within five miles of his birthplace, over a plain, uninfiuential 
citizen. Some two thousand people were present, and extra 



23 



| trains, north and south of Enfield, even as far as G-oldsboro, were 
run, bringing six hundred people. His sermon was one of great 
beauty and eloquence. Days after, at my solicitation, he repeat- 
ed a long passage from it that equaled any passage I have ever 
met with for splendor of thought and felicity of expression. lie 
recited it immediately after I had read a very grand passage 

< from Edward Everett's St. Louis oration, and I thought then 
that Mr, Lowe's surpassed it in those qualities that gave it such 
excellence. 

The last sermon he preached was a few months before the 
closing scene in the quiet drama of his life. He had gone to 
the mountains in Western ±sorth Carolina in search of health. 
His fame had gone before him, and he was importuned to preach. 
| He was very feeble, and his fine voice was broken and weak. 
A very large assembly had gathered to hear him — all strangers 
to him. His theme was "The song of the Angels;" and if ever 
the music of the angelic choristers was heard on earth, it was 
when this dying man stood up to preach his last sermon on 
earth, his face pale and worn, his form emaciated, his voice, at 
first indistinct and cracked, but presently clear and resonant 
and melodious as of yore. His theme suited his condition, his 
surroundings, and his peculiar genius. He spoke of heaven and 
the companionship of the redeemed ; of redemption and everlast- 
ing life through Jesus Christ. It was indeed as sweet a "song" 
.as "angel" ever sung. It was a seraphic picture that filled the 
soul with ecstasy, and gave the believer Pisgah views of the 
| promised inheritance. It was an echo of celestial harmony — "a 
sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies." 

The dying swan' thus sung his last and sweetest notes. In a 
short while he returned home to die, and in a few months all 
was over, and Thomas G, Lowe stood in the presence of the 
Master who had said to him, "Come up higher !" 

Mr. Lowe, as I have said, was frank, manly and sincere. He 
; doubtless enjoyed, as all good men enjoy, the good opinion of 
! his fellows. But of all men I have associated with he was the 
least tainted with personal vanity. In his vocabulary there was 
j no everlasting I. In his conversation, however free and famil- 
iar,there was no offensive Ego. I tell the truth when I declare 
, that I never heard him remotely allude to any thing he had 
! done or said, save only in response to a direct inquiry. You 
I must learn from others and not from him, a history of his per- 



24 



formances. In simplicity of character, in guilelessness, in con- 
sistent friendship, that was always the same, I have known 
scarcely his equal. 

Freinds, brethren beloved. I have thus at much length and 
under difficulties of which you know nothing, attempted to dis- 
charge a most grateful duty. I have essayed to present to you 
the religious and intellectual character of a former county man — a : 
neighbor, a friend and brother of many of you. I have spoken 
warmly, enthusiastically it may be, but only after mature 
deliberation and from a full conviction. I do not believe that ! 
in any particular I have used the colors too freely or that I have 
exaggerated the purity, the fascinating grace, and the splendid 
imagination of Thomas Ct. Lowe. As I said at the outset, I 
have judged him when in his happiest vien, when under the full- 
est effusion of the Enlightening and Sanctifying Spirit, when j 
his eye kindled under the Divine baptism, and his heart was ; 
filled with holy ardors and a burning love for souls. I have 
simply judged him as the great of earth are always judged — by 
the, highest exhibition of his powers. Thus judged, I feel sure that 
my departed friend was all 1 have depicted him. 

Whilst preparing this oration I received a most kindly letter 
from a dear friend at Oxford. The writer is a gentleman of 
fine taste in letters, of true culture, of sincere piety, and a law- | 
yer of high standing. He, like Mr. Lowe, is a native of Halifax, 
but he left it when a little boy. He writes as follows : 

'■I well remember 40 years ago, attending the old church at j 
(Haywoods) in company with Mr. Warren Branch's family, to 
hear Eev. T. S. Campbell preach. If I had the money to spare 
I should certainly be present to hear you speak of that wonder- 
ful man, that simple hearted, sweet spirited christian disciple, 
whose faculties seemed endowed of heaven to clothe the pro- 
foundest thought in the richest drapeiy of expression, and who 
combined in his eloquence the skill of the artist with the highest 
inspiration of genius. So far'as I have known. Tom. Lowe has 
left nothing in writing, and when the last of the generation 
who heard him shall have passed away bis name will live only 
in tradition and your writings of him." 

No lawyer in North Carolina by reason of cultivation, taste ! 
and skill with the pen is better qualified to render judgment j 
upon the gifts of an orator like Lowe than John W. Hays, sans | 
peur, sans reproche. 



25 



Whilst we gather here to pay fitting homage to the name 
and good deeds of a rarely endowed servant of Jesus who 
went in and went out before you; whilst you erect this house 
of worship in view of his natal birth-spot and upon the site so long 
occupied by the old church in which Thomas Cf. Lowe first found 
Christ and united with His people, we must believe that if the 
saints in glory are ever occupied with the things of earth that 
our dear absent friend now regards from the celestial heights 
this scene and these memorial services. Although he has 
passed into the eternal heavens he is not forgotten here- 
Though rejoicing in the beatitudes of the redeemed and glori- 
fied his name and memory are kept green on earth, and we 
trust may be preserved for generations yet unborn. When our 
life here, like his, is ended forever, looking only to the same 
Jesus he preached with so much of unction and power and 
eloquence, and who bought him with His own precious blood, 
may we meet our friend who has gone before, who was dead 
but is alive again, in those mansions of perpetual rest and per- 
petual bliss prepared by God for his people. 



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